KQED, Knight Foundation aim to accelerate media startups

A key date has just been circled on the calendar for media startups: January 6, 2013. That’s the application deadline for the inaugural February-May class offered by Matter Ventures, a super-cool new venture seeded by public TV broadcaster KQED and the Knight Foundation.

Each of the four selected applicants will receive $50,000 and take part in an intensive four-month acceleration track. The media companies can be from anywhere in the U.S., but all co-founders must be willing and able to relocate to work full-time for that time at the Matter Ventures SoMa district space. From this week’s announcement:

Matter Ventures will be led by CEO and partner Corey Ford, who most recently built and ran Runway, an accelerator for Innovation Endeavors, Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s early stage venture capital firm. Ford has also taught design thinking at Stanford’s d.school and helped produce 17 films for Frontline.

Partner Jake Shapiro is the founding CEO of PRX, an Ashoka Fellow and a former associate director of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Jigar Mehta, the co-founder of GroupStream and 18 Days in Egypt, a Knight Fellow, and former New York Times video journalist, will serve as director of operations.

The first on-site information session for potential applicants is December 13, from 6 to 7 p.m. Tons more info at the Matter Ventures website.

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